understanding quantitative and qualitative research in psychology

Quantitative and Qualitative Research in Psychological Science

• Thematic Issue Article: Historical Perspective
• Published: 29 July 2015
• Volume 10 , pages 263–272, ( 2015 )

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• Katherine Nelson 1  

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The field of psychology has emphasized quantitative laboratory research as a defining character of its role as a science, and has generally de-emphasized qualitative research and theorizing throughout its history. This article reviews some of the effects of this emphasis in two areas, intelligence testing, and learning and memory. On one side, quantitative measurement produced the widely used IQ test but shed little light on the construct of intelligence and its role in human cognition. On the other side, reductive quantification and experimental constraints limited the investigation and understanding of human memory systems and complex learning throughout the first century of the field’s history. Recent research under fewer constraints has made greater progress in these areas.

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Intelligence: The Psychological View

Meta-intelligence: understanding, control, and coordination of higher cognitive processes.

• Intelligence

Neisser appears later here for his work on memory and intelligence.

This assumption holds today in many arenas. A more moderate assumption is that all levels are appropriate for investigation, and that feedback from a higher level to a lower may be as informative—and sometimes more informative—as the discovery of an important unit and function at the lower level can be for understanding the higher (see Gottlieb 1992 ).

See Nelson ( 2012 ) for a version of the history and influence of this theory.

My own experience bridged the two orientations: My PhD from UCLA in 1968 was in experimental psychology, essentially behaviorist, specialized in child psychology. My first two publications were in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology .

This is not the place for reviewing the controversies about this research and its assumed theoretical basis (see Allen and Bickhard 2013 for review and discussion from several angles).

It was assumed that adults do not develop further intelligence, although with increasing age they acquire more knowledge, on the one hand, but presumably lose more mental speed and memory on the other. This assumption is now in question.

If we consider 1920 as the starting point of widespread IQ testing of populations, this implies a 30 point rise in IQs by the present day, or the difference between average and “genius” on some scales.

Publishers of these tests generally deny that they are the same as IQ tests; rather they are said to measure “academic aptitude.”

For those who may have forgotten or never learned these terms, classical conditioning as designed by Pavlov takes place through the association of a stimulus (e.g., a bell) with a desired outcome (e.g., food); instrumental conditioning is the establishment of a habitual action when followed by a reward (e.g., a rat learning to press a lever to receive food. Rats learning to run through a maze to be rewarded with food or water is another example).

The quotation was part of a paper presented at a memory conference in 1978 and published as a chapter in the 1982 book.

“H.M.” is now famous in memory work, his disabilities (the inadvertent result of surgery to relieve epilepsy) having been studied continuously over decades. A good brief account of his case and its impact on understanding memory in terms of systems may be found in Squire and Wixted ( 2015 ).

See Moscovitch ( 1984 ) for early discussion of these distinctions relevant to infant and child memory.

The revival of interest in Vygotsky’s contributions to social, cultural–historical thinking is especially notable and quite widespread. A return to Piaget’s thinking is less visible, although research in its framework continues in European contexts, but it is always in the background as a model of developmental theory and research program. In the U.S. it was the target of strong criticism during the computational era as cognitive development from a sensorimotor beginning in infancy was deemed inconceivable. Presently interest in terms of a merger of biological and social–cultural–experiential contributions to development has become more prominent.

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Distinguished Professor of Psychology Emerita, City University of New York Graduate Center, New York, NY, USA

Katherine Nelson

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Nelson, K. Quantitative and Qualitative Research in Psychological Science. Biol Theory 10 , 263–272 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-015-0216-0

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Received : 04 January 2015

Accepted : 16 June 2015

Published : 29 July 2015

Issue Date : September 2015

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-015-0216-0

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